Task force unanimous for RFQ

Committee wants water projects opened to bids

 

Brandon’s water development committee heard from two speakers, held two votes and announced its mission statement during the group’s three-hour meeting Dec. 12.  

The committee determined its mission was “To educate the public and assist Brandon’s City Council in identifying best practices for affordable and sustainable quality water for the community’s short-term and long-term needs.”

The task force also authorized committee head and city alderman Don Wells to recommend to the council Dec. 18 that the city adopt an RFQ (Request for Qualifications) process to open up water projects to all engineering firms, not just Stockwell Engineers.

The council took no action on the request Monday.

 

Connecting to MCWC

Scott Buss, executive director of MCWC (Minnehaha Community Water Corp.), shared information and answered questions at the water committee’s Dec. 12 meeting about MCWC’s potential to be a back-up water source for Brandon. 

MCWC has pipeline running along the west side of Brandon by the Bluffs residential development, a line north of the Corson industrial park and a line along Sioux Boulevard. 

“We don’t have the ability to supply Brandon’s long-term needs – that 20-year plan and estimate of 3 million gallons a day – but we do have the ability to help with short-term needs,” Buss said. 

Buss said MCWC could provide approximately 400,000 gallons per day using its abandoned water tower near the Corson Industrial Park. The city would not be required to buy the tower. 

Brandon would, however, be required to switch from chlorine to chloramines to contract with MCWC, even if that emergency source were never used. 

While chlorine has traditionally been the disinfectant method of choice for water treatment systems, more are switching to chloramines, Buss noted.

“Obviously there’s a lot to look into. How much will this affect our rates, or will they change at all?” Wells said. “Initially, in the summer, every problem we ever had with this was a quantity issue. It wasn’t quality at first. I mean, quality has been kind of an ongoing issue. But what put us in this situation was quantity, and this could help solve the quantity problem.”

City administrator Bryan Read estimated that establishing a connection to MCWC would likely take close to a year, including design, bidding, construction and educating the public about chlorine versus chloramines.

Buss said MCWC’s rate is $2 per 1,000 gallons of water, compared to around $8 to buy water from the city of Sioux Falls. 

“I can honestly say now more than ever that I do not know,” Wells declared.  

He asked for thoughts on recommending a MCWC connection to city council.

Several committee members weighed in.

“If we find out the Splitrock Aquifer isn’t going to supply us for the next 50 years, then I think we have to say yes,” said Jason Kjenstad. 

Kevin Smith said he’d feel more comfortable waiting to see what would come out of the next meeting with hydrologists and geologists from the South Dakota Geological Survey. 

“With a MCWC connection we’re talking about a short-term solution, and what I’m hearing most of us say is that right now, we can’t determine if we have a short-term issue,” said city engineer Paul Sanow. 

“I guess I would say, short-term, is ‘What does the treatment plant look like in the summer?,’ because that has not been answered at all,” Tim Wakefield said. “What is the reduced output at the plant running the new HMO system? What is, pencil to paper, the plant capable of? And that unknown is why I discussed MCWC as an additional water source.”

“I wouldn’t mind starting to look into this process now, not necessarily spend the money yet,” Wells said. “And yes, I promise you, we will come up with a short-term, a medium-term and a long-term plan, a 30-year plan, at the end of this process.”

He asked for a vote on recommending an MCWC connection to city council. City employees Read and Sanow and Stockwell president Brown abstained. 

The committee voted to gather more information before making a recommendation on MCWC.

 

Drinking water standards

Mark Mayer from the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources talked about how DENR monitors South Dakota’s 647 water systems and enforces the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Act, which sets levels to limit bacterial growth and other hazardous contaminants. 

DENR ensures that primary contaminants like mercury, lead and radium – which pose a health concern – fall below the maximum contaminant level (MCL). 

Water systems are in compliance with DENR by submitting quarterly water samples, meeting level standards and staying up-to-date on operator certification.

Just 44 community water systems in the state have 16 years of continuous compliance, Mayer said, and Brandon is one of them. The DENR allows that 15 percent to go on a reduced monitoring schedule. 

“Brandon’s water, from a regulatory world, is meeting the standards,” Mayer said. 

While the Safe Drinking Water Act doesn’t require enforcement of secondary contaminants, such as Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and hardness, which have cosmetic and aesthetic issues but aren’t a health hazard, DENR does make recommendations.  

Brandon’s 2016 drinking water report showed its TDS level at 484 parts per million (compared to a MCL of 500 and the statewide average of 603), and an average water hardness of 374 (compared to the state average of 294).

Implementing water system changes due to high TDS and hardness, Mayer said, “becomes a community decision.”

He’s seen communities with very hard water add a centralized water softener to treat the entire water system. 

In addition to conducting on-site sanitary surveys every three years, DENR requires radiological samples every three years. Brandon’s 2014 sample showed combined radium to be 1, compared to a MCL of 10, Mayer said. 

In a pilot test, water from well 7 – which the city has not taken online yet – was found to be high in radium. Well 7 is currently being tested the treatment plant’s new HMO process, and the city awaits test results from the state lab. Those results and recommendations from the water committee will help the city determine whether or not to use well 7.

DENR takes the average of four quarterly samples from a water source that’s being treated for radium, which is considered a chronic contaminant and not an acute health risk. 

“If we know a well in the mix has issues, exceeds the standards, then we look for a plan, an assurance from the community how that well will be controlled,” Mayer said. 

In some cases, water systems have abandoned wells after consecutive tests showed excessive radium. 

“By then the handwriting’s sort of on the wall,” Mayer said.

Water from the city’s main source, well 6, would likely be blended with well 7, said Jon Brown with Stockwell Engineers.

 “We’ll monitor well 7 very closely, obviously,” he said. 

“Is well 7 worth it? Is it counter-effective? Or do we need to seek water elsewhere?” Wells asked the committee.

If a community has little option but to use the contaminated source, Mayer said, DENR’s financial aid department can create a grant package to help pay for system upgrades to remove the contaminant. 

“A commercial water softener can be very effective at removing radium,” he added.

The committee discussed the possibility of stipulating a performance guarantee on well 7’s treatment process. 

Well 7 is one of a few topics the water committee will continue to re-visit, Wells said. 

Another is the aquifers that Brandon sits on.    

According to Brown, several studies on Brandon’s water system have recommended the city continue searching for well sources in the Big Sioux and Splitrock aquifers.  

“Your water quality will be dependent on the aquifer if comes from,” said Pat Hammond, a committee member and retired hydrologist. 

She said Big Sioux water is softer than Splitrock water due to the bedrock in the Big Sioux.   

“The way to get rid of radium is to not use Splitrock Creek,” Hammond said. “That’s why we have people drinking horrendously hard water.”

State geologists and hydrologists discussed Brandon’s aquifers in depth at the water committee’s Dec. 19 meeting.

“Economic planning now can pay big dividends later,” Mayer said. “Securing a water supply today is time, effort and money well spent. People 40, 50 years from now will be thanking you.”

 

RFQ process

The committee wrapped up its three-hour meeting with discussion on opening up future water projects to multiple engineering firms, not just Stockwell Engineers.

According to city finance officer Dennis Olson, Stockwell has been consulting for Brandon 25 to 30 years. 

Read said Brandon reached out to other firms with a RFP (Request for Proposal) for its 2013 water study.

“Nothing against engineering firms, but you guys all think differently,” Read said. “You don’t want different firms designing the same systems in your community. If you’re looking at system-wide studies it’s good to get different opinions.”

He and Sanow stressed that the committee needed to define the scope of work. 

Wells asked the committee to weigh in on sticking with Stockwell for upcoming water projects or opening up the work to other, qualified engineering firms. 

“I don’t know that I could make an educated decision based on one opinion,” Angi Nemmers said. “I would prefer to have the opinion of a couple of firms.”

“This is putting me in an unbelievably tough position,” Wells said. “Whatever happens, it’s straining relationships.”

The vote was unanimous to recommend the city adopt an RFQ process for future water projects and open up bids to multiple engineering firms. 

Sanow suggested getting the word out to the public sooner rather than later that water rates would go up as the city moves forward with water projects.

“We need to put a public education system in place that are rates are going to go up, because that’s the reality,” he said. “And it has to get out there because the day we flip that switch, the phone at city hall starts to ring. It’s a tough decision that councils in the past have had to deal with that we as a community have to burden that cost.”

The water committee’s next meeting is tentatively set for Tuesday, Jan. 2, at city hall. Visit the city’s website at brandonsd.org for a link to the YouTube video of the Dec. 12 meeting.